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Very Best Restaurants: Obelisk

Very Best Listing | Very Best by Cuisine | Very Best by Location

Obelisk ***
Washington, $$

If chef Peter Pastan owned a small restaurant in rural Italy, you'd likely encounter him in the village market, choosing seasonal provisions for his daily menu. That's exactly the image conveyed by the cooking at his small, elegant P Street trattoria. Though rustic in inspiration, Pastan's approach to Italian cooking captures the elegance of simplicity.

His rough-crusted loaves of house-baked bread are so good that one would not feel deprived by making a meal of a few slices, a bit of cheese, and a couple of glasses of wine. The fixed-price menu doesn't offer that option, but the diner is given a choice of several dishes for each course. With Pastan's menu composed anew each evening, it's hard to recommend particular dishes. But diners might, on a given evening, encounter Pastan's ethereal fettuccine tossed with chanterelle mushrooms, lamb chops sauteed with tiny artichokes, or a perfectly grilled veal chop with juniper sauce; the cheese course of the day; and either a rich, chocolaty Italian flan or almond cookies dipped in vin santo. Everyone leaves intending to revisit Obelisk in the near future.

Obelisk , 2029 P St. NW, Washington; 202-872-1180. Open Monday through Saturday for dinner only. MapIt!

QUALITY: ****Excellent; *** Superior; **Very Good; * Good
PRICE RANGE: $$$= Very Expensive; $$ Expensive; $=Moderate; ¢=Inexpensive

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